32 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



costs annually to run a twelve passenger omnibus, such as are used 

 in Broadway, the sum of $2,200 . 



Comparhig Mr. Fisher's estimates of cost with the cost of running 

 Gurney and Hancock's carriage — bearing in mind the great differ- 

 ence in the relative expense of steam power l^etween 1836 and the 

 present time, as exhibited in the official reports of the State Engi- 

 neer of New-York, we are of the opinion that a steam carriage such 

 as proposed on Mr. Fisher's plan, could be run for nearly the same 

 annual cost as a Broadway omnibus — his carrying twenty-foiu- pas- 

 sengers and the omnibus twelve. 



With Mr. Fisher's springs and method of engine connection, we 

 believe a steam carriage could be constructed to run over common 

 roads when the ascent did not exceed one in ten or twelve miles, at 

 a much lower rate than horse power, and could be giiided in such a 

 manner as to be equally under the control of the driver. 



These assertions may seem too sanguine to some, but are no less 

 extravagant than would have been the statement fifteen years ago, 

 that steam engines could be erected in store windows of from three 

 to ten horse power, to grind coflfee, and this, too, at a running cost 

 of less than $10 a week, or about the wages of a good man, while 

 they actually perform the work of twenty, and can do that of eighty. 



Mr. Fisher's carriage will not require twice the power of the 

 largest of these engines; and hence, when we estimated the expense 

 at $2,200 a year to run the same, we may, in justice to him, state, 

 that we believe ourselves rather over than under the actual expense 

 of running the same. 



Scarcely a centmy has elapsed since Watt constructed his first 

 steam engine; still, in that short space of time, what an alleviator 

 has it become to the work of man ? It turns oiu* mills, as well in 

 the frozen season of the winter as the genial climes of the summer. 

 It traverses the bomidless ocean irrespective of Boreas' rush or 

 Neptune's anger. It foUow^s the iron track as it encu-cles conti- 

 nents, carrying man and the products ot his mind and genius from 

 the Orient to the Occident — from pole to pole. 



May we not hope, then, that the time is not far distant when 

 steam carriages shall traverse tliose great plains that meet us on our 

 westward march to the Pacific, as we go tbrth to force the wards of 

 Nature's storehouses, and apply her treasui*es to the use of man? 



F. ^\. GEISSENHAINER, Jr., 

 PAUL STILLMAN, 



./lugust 2, 1855. Committee. 



The report was accepted and ordered on file, August 2, 1855. 



